Cost of Living #6

[NotASlayer]

Supermarkets have a nasty habit of putting the prices for one product per 100g and the price for a comparable product being for a different weight or liquid measure. Often 1kg, but not always. Just to make it that much harder to compare prices.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

In many of our supermarkets, there are signs that give a price per 100 grams on things from luncheon meats to hummus and other such products. But these are in fine print, so if you want something off the bottom shelf, you had better get down on your hands and knees to read it. No one is interested in making it easy.

 

[November]

I stopped looking at price per kilo now. Well I try to stop, its a hard habit to get out of! Since I am only feeding one, its often worth getting the turkey deli meat despite the price per kilo cos I dont need a whole turkey for one. Its much easier now I have more money, I have far more choice. And choice I will choose!

Petrol is prohibitive now. I really have to ration my trips out of town even more. I am so glad so much more delivers now! The cost of deliver was worth it for the chemist stuff I got last week.

 

[nightshade]

Who needs money, when you can have a car!

Fuel prices are rising, and I know my tax will go up in June too.

I thought I'd worked more hours than I actually had this month, so not sure how well I'll do with saving this time. I have to save in case they do actually manage to sell this flat.

 

[NotASlayer]

I don't know if this is good news or not, but the UK property market looks to be staggering a bit, so selling property at the moment may not be as easy as it was.

 

[November]

I don't know if this is good news or not, but the UK property market looks to be staggering a bit, so selling property at the moment may not be as easy as it was.

Ooohh thats interesting. Did you guys have the population increase there like Aust and Canada did? I dont see our market slowing until the mines do or once they finish building the high density. Then again, maybe it will be like china, all those empty homes that no one can afford to live in.


*Free shipping* is doing me in. I have to order enough to get free shipping but its more than i need! And then it takes 3 weeks to get here from Queensland anyway! Better off ordering from Singapore or the UK!

 

[NotASlayer]

Ooohh thats interesting. Did you guys have the population increase there like Aust and Canada did? I dont see our market slowing until the mines do or once they finish building the high density. Then again, maybe it will be like china, all those empty homes that no one can afford to live in.

We have a housing shortage, but one problem is that we have a shortage of affordable housing. What with cost of living and interest rate increases, people are having problems buying, especially at the lower end, and that causes problems all the way up the chain.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

In our bachata (dance) group, a lot of people are supported by real estate. My daughter and son-in-law pay me to live here. The guy who got me into bachata owns several houses along with his brother. He owns the semi-detached place where he lives and not only did he rent out the other half, he closed off the upper floor of his half and rents that out. One of the women in our group put up walls in her basement and now has three bedrooms that she rents out to students for $1200 per month. My girlfriend has a spare bedroom that she rents out to a student for $600 per month, a bargain for the student.

We have the Liberal party in office right now and they have turned on the floodgates to immigration, resulting in an extra 1,500,000 people coming into the country since the last election. No wonder we are short of housing. As one economist said, every institution and practice in effect now is designed to take money away from young people and give it to old people and young people should be enraged.

 

[hoponlilmama]

A bulb in my car's front turn signal is out. I've replaced bulbs before, and even have the right bulb. But it turns out that getting into those front lights is very involved. The back ones you just have to unscrew two screws. So, do I want to try to do it myself or pay the mechanic $50?

Bit of a late reply, but maybe there's a YT tutorial to make things a little easier? There might be some method to make it faster, so you don't end up yelling madly at your car after 2 hours... 🤣

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Bit of a late reply, but maybe there's a YT tutorial to make things a little easier? There might be some method to make it faster, so you don't end up yelling madly at your car after 2 hours... 🤣

I just replaced a headlight today and used the instructions in the owner's manual. If you have an owner's manual, it may cover that. On my Subaru, you have to take the top screw off the windshield washer bottle and move it over to get at the light housing. It has a waterproof cap that you have to twist off to get to the bulb. Then it has a specified position to fit the bulb. Not as much of a hassle as it sounds and I am only out CDN $10.11 for the bulb. And if it takes half an hour, you are being lazy.

 

[nightshade]

Well now I need a new passenger side wing mirror on my car, I give up! Everytime I think I'm getting ahead something happens.

 

[NotASlayer]

Well now I need a new passenger side wing mirror on my car, I give up! Everytime I think I'm getting ahead something happens.

Oh, I hope that isn't expensive. I had to buy an entire mirror assembly and it was ridiculously expensive for my supposedly cheap car. Just like the headlight I had to replace after a suicidal pigeon broke it. Really, why do these things cost so much?

 

[nightshade]

Oh, I hope that isn't expensive. I had to buy an entire mirror assembly and it was ridiculously expensive for my supposedly cheap car. Just like the headlight I had to replace after a suicidal pigeon broke it. Really, why do these things cost so much?

Fingers crossed the part ordered is the right one, and if so it's an easy fix. My friend's son is into mechanics and said he can do it for me. So all going well, it should be less than £50. Which is better than I expected. The guy who's mirror I hit didn't have much damage so he's happy to do that himself and not charge be for it. So it's looking like it's not going to be as bad as I feared.

 

[NotASlayer]

Fingers crossed the part ordered is the right one, and if so it's an easy fix. My friend's son is into mechanics and said he can do it for me. So all going well, it should be less than £50. Which is better than I expected. The guy who's mirror I hit didn't have much damage so he's happy to do that himself and not charge be for it. So it's looking like it's not going to be as bad as I feared.

Yes, that is better than it could be. Not great having to pay, but it could easily have been worse.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Fingers crossed the part ordered is the right one, and if so it's an easy fix. My friend's son is into mechanics and said he can do it for me. So all going well, it should be less than £50. Which is better than I expected. The guy who's mirror I hit didn't have much damage so he's happy to do that himself and not charge be for it. So it's looking like it's not going to be as bad as I feared.

Your friend's son could probably get one from a wrecking yard (western hemisphere) / breakers (England) cheaply enough. It just might need to be painted the same colour as your car but if your car is white, black or grey, he may be able to get a matching mirror there. Brand new assemblies would be provided in primer, so a new one would have to be painted anyway.

 

[Dogs of Winter]

Supermarkets have a nasty habit of putting the prices for one product per 100g and the price for a comparable product being for a different weight or liquid measure. Often 1kg, but not always. Just to make it that much harder to compare prices.

I was comparing prices of mayo and the big jar was price per kg and the small jar per 100g. 99% of people will be able to compare the 2 but not everyone will. Some people have a total brain freeze at anything maths related
A couple of weeks ago someone stopped me in the supermarket to ask what was £1.85 * 3 so she could work out whether it was cheaper than another supermarket who were selling them at 3 for £6 !

 

[nightshade]

I was comparing prices of mayo and the big jar was price per kg and the small jar per 100g. 99% of people will be able to compare the 2 but not everyone will. Some people have a total brain freeze at anything maths related
A couple of weeks ago someone stopped me in the supermarket to ask what was £1.85 * 3 so she could work out whether it was cheaper than another supermarket who were selling them at 3 for £6 !

We shouldn't have to do this though. The switching between shops to save 50p here or there on items.

 

[NotASlayer]

A couple of weeks ago someone stopped me in the supermarket to ask what was £1.85 * 3 so she could work out whether it was cheaper than another supermarket who were selling them at 3 for £6 !

Oh yes, it is the offers that really trip people up! And then you get the even more complicated ones, like cheapest free.

 

[November]

Mental maths driving ya mental 😅
I very much have in my head what prices I wont pay. For example, mushrooms are out of the question at $13 a kilo, but I will get them at $11/kg. Wont pay more than $11 a kilo of chicken either, definitely not more than $5 a dozen for eggs. Some things just dont get purchased if they are over my mind money limit. Hard habit to break.

Aussies have it a bit different. There was basically a duopoly on grocery stores, so scouring the catalogues to get specials from one store and the other was very much the norm all my life. We frequently stocked up from coles and then woolies depending on their weekly specials. My only choice is coles for delivery.

We shouldn't have to do this though. The switching between shops to save 50p here or there on items.

Now we have Aldi too 😁 whose adverts actively encourage us to shop there and then shop elsewhere.

 

[hoponlilmama]

I just replaced a headlight today and used the instructions in the owner's manual. If you have an owner's manual, it may cover that. On my Subaru, you have to take the top screw off the windshield washer bottle and move it over to get at the light housing. It has a waterproof cap that you have to twist off to get to the bulb. Then it has a specified position to fit the bulb. Not as much of a hassle as it sounds and I am only out CDN $10.11 for the bulb. And if it takes half an hour, you are being lazy.

Yes, good thinking!
First thing to do is to check the manual (if you have a hold of it, Stake fodder).

If the manual or a tutorial still seems too difficult or you're not confident, maybe ask a friend or seek out another mechanic?

I've only ever had to replace the rear bulbs once or twice in my years of car ownership.